Paraffin spas are commonly used in the health and beauty areas for providing a therapeutic effect to a person's hands or feet. A paraffin spa includes a container for heating paraffin, wax or other similar substances to a melting point of about 120° F. The paraffin spa is of a size sufficient for bathing therein a person's hand or foot. Special paraffins are commercially available that are colored and have aromatic scents and oils therein. The client simply immerses an extremity in the melted paraffin for a short period of time, and withdraws the extremity for allowing solidification of the paraffin to a warm pliable state. This procedure is continued until a few layers of warm paraffin coat the person's extremity. The coating of paraffin remains warm and pliable due to the temperature of the client's extremity. This treatment provides a soothing and pleasant sensation to the client, as well as a therapeutic effect for dry skin.
It can be appreciated that during successive uses of the paraffin bath, various particulate contaminants accumulate and remain in the paraffin material. These particulate contaminants generally settle to the bottom of the paraffin bath. Certain health considerations arise if the contaminants are not removed. Moreover, clients become hesitant to place their hands in a melted paraffin bath that has visible particulate matter therein. There are also concerns of passing bacteria from one client to another.
One technique for assuring that the client does not utilize the paraffin with contaminants therein is simply to periodically replace the entire bath of paraffin wax. The large chunk of paraffin, together with the contaminants, is simply removed from the spa and replaced with fresh paraffin. While this measure is effective, it is a costly procedure and the used paraffin must be disposed of in a proper manner. In accordance with another technique, the solidified paraffin is removed from the spa, together with the contaminants or residue that has settled to the bottom thereof. The particulate contaminants can then be scraped or otherwise removed from the chunk of paraffin and the remaining portion of the paraffin placed back in the spa container. In this procedure, the spa heater is activated for a short period of time to melt the paraffin sufficiently so that the solidified portion can be removed. Again, this is a time-consuming procedure, is only marginally effective, and results in a portion of the paraffin being discarded. This technique is only effective for removing particulate contaminants that are heavier than the paraffin, and that settle to the bottom of the spa container. Other particulate matter that is suspended in the paraffin thus remains when the solidified paraffin is returned to the spa container.
An important consideration in the use of heated paraffin is that if the material is to be reused, it should be substantially free of bacteria and other filterable particulate matter before reuse thereof. Even if the melted paraffin were to be poured through a filter medium and used thereafter, general purpose filters cannot remove the bacteria and other fine particulate matter. This presents an obvious health concern. Even if very fine filter mediums were to be used, they would quickly become clogged with the larger size particles, and such filters would have to be replaced frequently.
From the foregoing, it can be seen that a need exists for a new technique in which melted paraffin is easily filtered with a high efficiency, and returned to the spa container. Another need exists for a hot paraffin filter system which is fool proof and does not require a high degree of skill in the operation thereof. Yet another need exists for a paraffin filter system that is constructed so that the filter is easily replaceable, and the other parts of the system remain generally inaccessible to the user.